Cisco just delivered the best quarter in the company’s history, and the stock went down. Welcome to 2026, where record-breaking numbers apparently aren’t enough to keep momentum going once the initial euphoria fades.
The networking giant posted $15.8 billion in revenue for fiscal Q3 2026, a 12% jump from the same period last year and comfortably ahead of the $15.56 billion Wall Street had penciled in. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $1.06, also beating estimates. Shares initially surged as much as 15% on the news, then proceeded to give back roughly 7% from those highs, settling around $120 in mid-August.
The AI machine driving record numbers
Through the first three quarters of fiscal 2026, Cisco has booked $5.3 billion in AI-related orders. That’s enough to prompt the company to nearly double its full-year AI orders target from $5 billion to $9 billion. AI revenue guidance also got a meaningful bump, rising from $3 billion to $4 billion for fiscal 2026.
CEO Chuck Robbins called the current moment a “networking supercycle,” pointing to hyperscale customers racing to build out AI infrastructure as the primary catalyst. Robbins also offered a longer-term forecast, suggesting AI traffic growth expectations could increase by up to nine times over the next decade.
